School: Westerly High School
CT: Mrs. Malone
Class: Honors Bio, Juniors
Observation: The students in Mrs. Malone’s class are generally well behaved and pay attention to what she is saying. Twice I noticed students taking out their phones, but both times they just checked something for a second and then immediately put it back in their pocket before I could say something to them. The one time a student was on his phone for a prolonged time Mrs. Malone asked him, “What is so important on your phone?” The student looked embarrassed and quickly replied, “Nothing more important than what you are teaching, sorry.” Other than that, the only distractions I noticed was the students getting slightly off topic while they were doing lab work. However, they would only talk about non-science related things while they were waiting for tests to finish. They also continued to do other work while they chatted. Furthermore, many students volunteered information when Mrs. Malone would ask a question, and took pride in getting the correct answers.
While observing I did not notice my CT using any special strategies to keep the students engaged, because the students were generally engaged already. The one time Mrs. Malone had to get a student back on track she did not even have to tell the student to stop using his phone, but instead simply pointed out that she knew he was on the phone. Mrs. Malone did not utilize the whole class space during her more lecture centric lesson. Instead she stayed in the front of the room, but did pace back and forth, never sitting down. During the lab portion of the class, she did circulate the room, checking on each group in turn.
Reflection: I was very surprised at how engaged the students of Mrs. Malone’s class were. In my past experience there were always at least two or three kids who blatantly did not pay attention. This was not the case in Mrs. Malone’s class, where even students who got distracted did not stay distracted for more than a moment. Perhaps the reason for this is that I was observing one of her honors class. I would expect that if I had observed her CP class on that day they would not have been as well behaved, though they may be as engaged also. The students of her elective were just as focused as the students in her honors bio class. Also, I do not think Mrs. Malone was wrong in her decision to not circulate the whole class for her lecture. The way her class is set up, there are only two rows of tables that have students at them and they are both close to the front of the room where Mrs. Malone was teaching.
In my opinion, student engagement is extremely important. I want my class to be comfortable enough with each other so that class discussions are a common occurrence. To facilitate this, I will use a technique that I have seen often at college, including in this class. I will occasionally arrange all of the seats in the class in a circle and have a class discussion. In this way the students can become more comfortable with each other, and it will also be much easier to see if a student is not paying attention. To encourage student participation I will utilize humor to poke fun at students I catch not paying attention. However, humor can only go so far, and if the student persists with the negative behavior more serious measures will need to be taken. Also, I will arrange my class in a way that lets me walk around the room as I teach. I feel that if the teacher walks close to each student throughout the lesson, it will encourage students to pay attention, as opposed to if the teacher is never close to the students in the back of the room.
CT: Mrs. Malone
Class: Honors Bio, Juniors
Observation: The students in Mrs. Malone’s class are generally well behaved and pay attention to what she is saying. Twice I noticed students taking out their phones, but both times they just checked something for a second and then immediately put it back in their pocket before I could say something to them. The one time a student was on his phone for a prolonged time Mrs. Malone asked him, “What is so important on your phone?” The student looked embarrassed and quickly replied, “Nothing more important than what you are teaching, sorry.” Other than that, the only distractions I noticed was the students getting slightly off topic while they were doing lab work. However, they would only talk about non-science related things while they were waiting for tests to finish. They also continued to do other work while they chatted. Furthermore, many students volunteered information when Mrs. Malone would ask a question, and took pride in getting the correct answers.
While observing I did not notice my CT using any special strategies to keep the students engaged, because the students were generally engaged already. The one time Mrs. Malone had to get a student back on track she did not even have to tell the student to stop using his phone, but instead simply pointed out that she knew he was on the phone. Mrs. Malone did not utilize the whole class space during her more lecture centric lesson. Instead she stayed in the front of the room, but did pace back and forth, never sitting down. During the lab portion of the class, she did circulate the room, checking on each group in turn.
Reflection: I was very surprised at how engaged the students of Mrs. Malone’s class were. In my past experience there were always at least two or three kids who blatantly did not pay attention. This was not the case in Mrs. Malone’s class, where even students who got distracted did not stay distracted for more than a moment. Perhaps the reason for this is that I was observing one of her honors class. I would expect that if I had observed her CP class on that day they would not have been as well behaved, though they may be as engaged also. The students of her elective were just as focused as the students in her honors bio class. Also, I do not think Mrs. Malone was wrong in her decision to not circulate the whole class for her lecture. The way her class is set up, there are only two rows of tables that have students at them and they are both close to the front of the room where Mrs. Malone was teaching.
In my opinion, student engagement is extremely important. I want my class to be comfortable enough with each other so that class discussions are a common occurrence. To facilitate this, I will use a technique that I have seen often at college, including in this class. I will occasionally arrange all of the seats in the class in a circle and have a class discussion. In this way the students can become more comfortable with each other, and it will also be much easier to see if a student is not paying attention. To encourage student participation I will utilize humor to poke fun at students I catch not paying attention. However, humor can only go so far, and if the student persists with the negative behavior more serious measures will need to be taken. Also, I will arrange my class in a way that lets me walk around the room as I teach. I feel that if the teacher walks close to each student throughout the lesson, it will encourage students to pay attention, as opposed to if the teacher is never close to the students in the back of the room.